Chapter 826: We Are Professionals

There was still a division of labor, with Alan Wilson talking to Rahman Mahdi while the Sudanese commissioner went to deal with the other.

“Although it is inevitable that there will be some differences between the two sides when it comes to viewing issues, Mr. Rahman, it’s not that we don’t have a common language, what you want is for the Sudan to be independent and autonomous, not the so-called co-development with Egypt, isn’t it?” In the face of the descendants of the enemy who once gave the British Expeditionary Force a blow, Alan Wilson still maintains good breeding.

“I have never denied that in certain places, Sudan also shares a common language with Britain.” Rahman Mahdi nodded his head, he was actually very old now, and at this age he had nothing left to pursue.

Historically Sudan and Britain had a grudge, his father had led Sudan against Britain.

But let’s not forget that Sudan and Egypt are not free of hatred either, and have just as much to do with each other.

Like South Sudan’s fears, Rahman al-Mahdi’s faction thinks much the same way as South Sudan’s black leader, Joseph Agu, who was worried about Sudan’s Arabs. And Rahman Mahdi was worried about the Egyptians, although broadly speaking everyone was an Arab.

In Rahman Mahdi’s eyes, Egypt is Egypt and Sudan is Sudan.

Ali Pasha is a national hero to Egypt, a representative of the recent Egyptian uplift, but such historical figures are never my honey or my arsenic, and to the Sultan, especially in the eyes of Rahman Mahdi’s faction, Ali Pasha is not fundamentally different from Britain.

This doesn’t change just because both sides share the same belief in one religion, the invasion of Sudan on the part of Egypt was first waged as a war to plunder enough mineral resources.

But many of the minerals could not be extracted due to the lack of technological level, and Muhammad . The new army created by Muhammad Ali was also broken by pointless depletion, and since it could not generate enough revenue, it resorted to raiding and pillaging to recoup its costs.

Many Sudanese people who could not pay their taxes were forced into slavery, and with the Egyptian army also actively plundering slaves back home, there was a great deal of bloodshed, and in order to maintain its rule, Egypt could only continue to increase its forces, and eventually had to rely on gradual massacres to establish its rule in Sudan.

Sudan suffered a massive loss of population, wealth was squeezed out of the country, infrastructure was destroyed as a result of the revolt, and the military stronghold of the Egyptian army at the time even became Khartoum, the capital of today’s Sudan, which shows how much horrible damage the Egyptian invasion and rule had done to Sudan.

Next came the delightful British entrance, late Ali Pasha, Egypt had fallen into exhaustion from years of war, eventually Ali Pasha’s reforms failed and Britain seized the opportunity to colonize both Egypt and Sudan afterward.

Alan Wilson was happy, Rahman Mahdi was a seventy year old man, even if he could rule the independent Sudan, how many years could he be independent? He could remember that within a few years of independence Sudan had entered, the established path of African countries in general, going from one coup to another.

It would be better to rush the Sudan into chaos before Joseph Agu of South Sudan is even independent, so that it might be possible to continue the fight in South Sudan and maintain the British presence in South Sudan.

Rahman Mahdi does not know that the British in front of him is looking forward to his early death, Sudan rushed into the daily track of African countries in the midst of political chaos, to the Constitution of the Fourth Republic of France, but also to serve this purpose.

At this time he is still thinking, how to avoid the British departure, Egypt’s influence on the Sudan, after all, the Sudan’s two major parties, Ismail Azari’s Brotherhood Party, than his National People’s Party closer to Egypt.

This is not to say that once Ismail Azari is in power, Sudan will definitely merge with Egypt, but it is a possibility, so he spoke up again to make sure, “I don’t know if the previous assurances, still count.”

“See what Mr. Rahman said, of course it counts.” Alan Wilson said with an aggrieved look, “We, the British, have never taken the contract very seriously, only because of the current situation in South Sudan, there may be some variables in some details.”

Sensible people know there is only a small hope of persuading Britain to accept the full sovereignty Egypt enjoys over the Sudan, which the Egyptian public now believes is Egypt’s right.

So with a large colony, this sort of thing happens; what is favorable to British attitudes in the Sudan is not necessarily favorable in Egypt, and what is acceptable as a solution in the Sudan may be repugnant to the Egyptians.

It would be fine if Britain just had an interest in one of them, but the problem was Egypt and Sudan, Britain had both.

Alan Wilson had to make a trip to Sudan, and he believed that this matter, when handled well, would be a very positive example of the thorny problems Britain faced throughout the colonial question.

Now it was up to the two colonial commissioners, who had been personally involved in the independence of British India, to have the jester’s touch, to fiddle the joker’s ball in their hands, to get the United States to shut up and not take a stand, and to wait passively to be pulled down by the British, which was basically no problem.

Now on the other hand, it is to muddy the water, not to offend any party on major issues, any party also includes the seemingly okay Egypt, at this point Alan Wilson has long forgotten, in the Cairo Embassy’s grandiose words, what a big stroke is the birth of a new country, only really start to do to know, these things how tricky.

After the black protest march in South Sudan was quelled by Joseph Agu, it was already known internationally that the blacks of South Sudan had openly declared their unwillingness to stay in a country with Arabs because of the nineteenth-century black slave trade.

It was surprising that it led to a situation where both the United States and the Soviet Union were silent because of the involvement of the black slave trade.

The U.S. was unlikely to take a stand on this because of its black history. And the Soviet Union’s thinking is more simple, this is an issue of offense, support or not support will offend one of them, it is better to pretend not to see.

After the public opinion was in an uproar, it was enough to let the countries know what the problem was. It’s just an excuse to give South Sudan a lion’s share of the blame anyway.

With the media fervor and the protests done, it was only logical to have talks again. This time the talks were still chaired by John, the Sudanese Commissioner, with Alan Wilson still hiding elsewhere playing dead.

Before the meeting began, John set out London’s attitude, addressing several differently minded heads of power, “Prime Minister Adderley has authorized me to give the following assurances to the people of the Sudan: that the constitution and powers of the Government of the Sudan have not been altered by the recent negotiations. The Government of the Sudan is actively engaged in the task of preparing to give autonomy to the Sudanese and in preparing to allow them to choose freely their future status. Her Majesty’s Government will not allow anything to divert the Government of the Sudan from its task.”

This official article is of course not binding on the representatives of the parties, and the only thing binding about it is that England has not yet gone, and you can make all the noise you like, but you must never settle the question on the field of battle.

“Darfur is inhabited by a large number of Negroes, who are not Arabs.” After the attitude of the British government was conveyed, Joseph Agu began the negotiations with a direct blackmail, lionizing the fact that not only South Sudan was to be separated from Khartoum’s jurisdiction, but that the whole of Darfur had nothing to do with Khartoum.

Joseph Agu opened his mouth with a blow that directly confused Rahman al-Mahdi and Ismail al-Azhari, both of whom did not expect it to involve Darfur.

But immediately, both party leaders retorted in annoyance, and a heated argument broke out with Joseph Agu. The whole of Darfur occupies one-fifth of Sudan, and if both South Sudan and Darfur were to secede from Sudan, Sudan would immediately lose half of its land.

With the small number of blacks in these two places, half of the land would be taken away from the Arabs, who were the majority of the population. This was not just a question of provocation, but of negotiating with one’s life.

This time the negotiations were even more tense than the last, and the conversation between the Arabs and the blacks was full of gunpowder.

Even Yorke Kiziton, who reappeared in the talks, seemed as if he was not participating in a separate talk, but two sworn enemies giving each other ultimatums.

Neither Rahman Mahdi nor Ismail Azari could accept, Joseph Agu’s unreasonable demands. If they accepted it, the two would surely be eliminated as traitors when they returned.

Unsurprisingly, this time the talks again ended disastrously and without any results. This time the Sudanese commissioner John once again approached Joseph Agu, not to communicate but to complain, “The blacks in the South are supposed to be blackmailing. So it seems the hatred between the two sides is indeed unresolvable.”

Two days apart, on the border between North and South Sudan, a bloodbath shocked the representatives of all parties in Juba, when two Arab-settled villages were massacred, hundreds of people were killed to the last man, the houses where the dead lived were set ablaze, and, according to the survivors who were lucky enough not to be killed, a group of blacks armed with weapons carried out the massacre.

The story reached Khartoum first and then Juba, where negotiations were underway, and the British Sudanese army was immediately mobilized to the site of the massacre to investigate, while this one incident also complicated the talks.

Both Rahman al-Mahdi and Ismail al-Azhari angrily stated that they were not prepared to negotiate, but also to solve the problem on the battlefield, but in the end, under the pressure of the representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States, did not pay into action.

“Joseph, how can you do this.” Alan Wilson split his head and accused Joseph Agu, “Don’t tell me it has nothing to do with you, or you can’t control the army of South Sudan.”

Joseph Agu opened his mouth and finally said, “I must investigate this matter.”

When Joseph Agu left, Allen Wilson said to himself, “Nothing will go wrong, right?”

“Don’t worry, absolutely not.” Grace replied flatly, “We are quite professional in this kind of thing.”